The Democrat running for Kentucky’s Second District U.S. House seat says Congress should pass a federal minimum wage bill.
Ron Leach was in Glasgow Thursday, and told WKU Public Radio one of the biggest themes of this year’s election will be the growing income inequality seen throughout the nation in recent years. The retired U.S. Army Major says he’d like to see the minimum wage increased $10.10 an hour.
“There’s no excuse for anyone working full-time, 40 hours a week, living in poverty. So, beyond the minimum wage, we need to be looking at a living wage,” the Meade County Democrat said. “We have way too many folks out there working full-time or working multiple jobs, yet still qualify for federal assistance.”
Leach is running for the seat currently held by three-term Republican Brett Guthrie of Bowling Green.
Leach attacked what he called “immoral levels of compensation at the top” while employees earn “poverty wages.”
Leach served four combat deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq, and says he decided to run for Congress while overseas in 2011.
“If you recall, that was the year of the big debt ceiling standoff, the year that for the first time in history the U.S. debt was downgraded. And it was downgraded because the world was losing confidence in our ability to govern, and our ability to act like responsible adults.”
Leach is vying to become the first Democrat to represent Kentucky's 2nd District House Seat since William H. Natcher died in 1994.
The district includes Bowling Green, Elizabethtown, Glasgow, and Owensboro.
